MONTREAL -- Pauline Marois says it never occurred to her when Tuesday night’s Parti Québécois festivities were interrupted that she could be the target of a gunman.

An attack at Montreal’s Metropolis theatre shortly before midnight killed one man and seriously wounded another, plunging the province into a state of shock on the night Quebecers chose Marois as their first woman premier.

Her news conference was supposed to be her victory lap after the PQ won the provincial election — although without the majority she sought.

“A man is dead for no reason,” Marois said.

“Quebec is not a violent society and one act of madness cannot change that,” she added, suggesting the gunman had “very serious” mental health problems.

Marois was hustled off the stage at Metropolis by her security detail while she was delivering her victory speech to her PQ supporters.

But she returned to the stage twice, once to urge people to stay calm, and a second time with her family and elected PQ members to finish her speech.

The first time she went back to the microphone was to calm the crowd, who appeared confused but not in a state of panic.

“What would happen if these people panicked,” Marois said she asked herself. “I told my bodyguards I wanted to speak.”

She said she did not know until police had taken her to a downtown hotel that a man had died. She saw an injured man at the Metropolis whom she believed was not in serious condition, and decided she could complete her speech.

“It seemed that everything was under control,” she said.

Marois intended to speak with the families of the victims Wednesday

“Things like that happen and we can do nothing,” she said.

Marois also told reporters that she had a first “cordial’ conversation in the morning with Stephen Harper and she intends to bring up with the prime minister issues all parties in the National Assembly agree on, such as Quebec’s desire to retain the long-gun registry and restore a Quebec approach to young offenders, treating them as minors with social problems, rather than punishing them and sending them to prison as adult offenders.

And in spite of the limitations of her minority government, she said she plans to go ahead with her legislative plans, noting the opposition parties agree with the PQ on the need to add daycare places and increase homecare for seniors.

She also expects agreement among all parties to plug a loophole in Bill 35 that has allowed myriad companies belonging to Tony Accurso, the construction magnate, to continue receiving public-sector construction contracts even after two companies with ties to Accurso pleaded guilty to tax fraud.

On more contentious PQ proposals, such as rolling back the $1,788 tuition hike and abrogating Bill 78, Marois said she will proceed by cabinet decree, rather than trying to pass laws.

Marois said once the tuition increase is cancelled, she is sure opposition parties will agree to abrogate Bill 78, criticized by Quebec’s human rights commission for infringing on fundamental charter rights.

“I will then hold a summit,” Marois announced, referring to the PQ plan for a summit, one-third of whose members will be students, including to develop a consensus on how best to finance post-secondary education and make university studies more accessible.

She also wants to go ahead, as planned, with her new, tougher Bill 101, extending francization rules to companies with 11 to 50 employees and applying Bill 101 rules to CÉGEPs and professional training programs.

Only those eligible for English schooling would be able to attend English CEGEPs, excluding francophones and the children of immigrants who do not qualify for English schooling in the province.

“I want to present the whole new Bill 101 as I imagined it,” she said, without explaining who she will do so without a majority of seats in the legislature. “I will see how far the opposition will go.”

Marois said Bill 101 has to be toughened because of the “worrying decline of French in Montreal and the Outaouais.”

“That remains the centre of my preoccupations.”

Marois and her team will meet with their counterparts in the Charest administration to plan a transition of power in about two weeks when Marois and her new cabinet will be sworn in.

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